Al’s Highlighted Event 1 Start:

“Some magical time machine you got there, Gray! What do you mean ‘nothing’?”

“It just means we’re the first timeline. We have to make the best of it. Who knows, we might survive on the first go.”

"Oh, buzz off, we’re screwed, and I wanted to live.”

“We will eventually make it. Our existence will be perpetuated. What more could you ask for?”

“Me living?”

Bec put her hands to her hips. “Fair. But it’s too late now. We’re stuck. Do yourself a favor and don’t waste an entire timeline BITCHING.”

“Bitching? BITCHING?” Ms. Scarlet adopted a sarcastic air. “I’m sorry that I haven’t exactly gotten to grips with the existential realization that I’m likely going to die of starvation in a dimension with a person who would condescend me with hokey misogyny.”

Bec was shocked. Al was surprised that calling someone a bitch was something Bec didn’t realize was rude. She knew what it meant, said it, and yet remained surprised that the inevitable response occurred.

Al’s Highlighted Event 2 Start:

“Ahm TRYING.” Mr. Purple grunted in frustration.

“Take your time, we literally have eternity.” Bec sat with him. He was trying to create a topological design to invert the space bubble of the FAB, hoping that it would eject the contents outside the mountain as it collapsed.

"The rumbling in my stomach says otherwise.”

“This idea could work. We just need to write down all your work before we die.”

“Hooraaaay…” Mr. Purple clench his stylus in hand.

Al’s Highlighted Event 3 Start:

“You know you’re insulting yourself, right.”

“Ah already knew ah was an idiot. Ah didn’t realize just how much of one. All the other me’s have been going about this all wrong. Anyone who studied spatiality in school would know that a sphere inversion technique is useless when the bounding box has a genus of one or greater. This is garbage! Literal garbage.” Mr. Purple threw windows on his display across the screen. “It would have worked if Black wasn’t up his own ass and made the base with a normal bubble instead of a torus. ‘Oh, look at me, I’m a huge fucking genius and I need my hallways to have spatial technology shaped like a donut because fuck easy integration.’ Ah’ll kill him. Ah will!”

“Well, now you know it’s a ‘torus’ so you can invert it?” Bec asked.

“It’s supposed to be easier but Ah never studied it in school.” He gritted his teeth. “Everyone uses bubbles…”

Al’s Highlighted Event 4 Start:

Bec got knocked to the floor of the practice room. “Dammit, Ms. Scarlet. This won’t help us get out of here.”

“No, it won’t. It’ll just make me feel better. You’ve been a very bad protégé, I need to discipline you.” Ms. Scarlet threw a knife at Bec. It was a new technique she was workshopping where the blades would leave her hands and strike the target instantly after it left her hand. She wanted a better response to people like Tamara. It was difficult to coordinate when a target moved.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“I get your frustrations.” Bec ran as blades rained down on her. “Why, then, is Purple here?”

It’s funny. Ah would’a brought popcorn but, yah know, it’s toxic.”

Dear god, I’ve shared my secret with psychopaths. Bec felt a blade dig into her calf.

Al’s Highlighted Event 5 Start:

“Scarlet, I’m… so hungry.” Bec laid on the floor of her room. She had tried to stand but the world fell into static and she woke up on the floor. She’d burned much more calories than she could afford to from the spars. She laid there until Scarlet got there.

“Yes, Gray. I know it hurts. That’s why I have to do this…”

“I know, I know. Do what you have to…” Bec had read about this part before. Scarlet removed Bec’s head, then and there.

Al’s Highlighted Event 6 Start:

“All righty. Let’s watch this mountain invert!” Purple pressed a button, and, in moments, the mountain erupted. It looked like it evaporated. A plume of dust rocketed out and a fine powder rained down on the group.

“Is… is it supposed to atomize?” Bec asked, her palms getting a light dusting as she reached out for the ashen ‘snow.’

“No.” Purple sighed.

“Shame. Any profound ideas what went wrong, P?”

“No. Not right now.”

"Ah well, better luck next time. Come here, Bec.” Ms. Scarlet beckoned. Her brown hair was getting covered in gray dust.

Bec sighed as she walked over to Ms. Scarlet. “Please make it quick.”

“I always do.”

Bec’s head was removed from her body in single swing.

Al’s Highlighted Event 7 Start:

Bec slammed into the wall. As she settled onto the floor, she cried out, “57 times. Is killing me 57 times not enough for you? You were so nice and nurturing when we were training a week ago!”

“Just to be clear, I didn’t have to kill you every time. You killed yourself a few times trying to yank the crystal out of the FAB, ‘just to be sure.’ Anyways, like you said, Gray, it’s not last week, it’s been practically a year of us sparring. Don’t tell me you haven’t gotten a kernel of wisdom or two, I read the Timelet, I know you have, too. I’ve learned a few new tricks. Like this!” Ms. Scarlet stabbed down at the air, and the blade appeared in Bec’s leg. She screamed. Purple laughed. “See, I don’t need to throw the blade. The blade is at its fastest when it’s in my hand. Brilliant! Thanks, Me #47.”

Bec chanted to herself as she yanked the blade out of her thigh. This pain is temporary, I will escape. This pain is temporary, I will escape. She threw the blade at Scarlet. She knew how to throw a blade based on its balance after reading Bec’s revelations on the matter. She still sucked though. Ms. Scarlet shrugged away from the blade and Bec sprinted at her as fast as she could with the hole in her thigh. Bec reared up and leaped for a superman punch, putting as much rotational energy into the swing as she could.

Her fist hit air, but she expected that. Ms. Scarlet liked to move Bec past her whenever she charged. Usually, only an inch or two past her so she could embarrass Bec with a follow-up strike. That’s why Bec’s punch was only one of the strikes she threw. Her back-swinging elbow, thankfully, did hit its target. For the second time ever, in something nearing a hundred total spars, Bec hit Ms. Scarlet with an elbow. The blast exploded out and, a second or two later, the sound of body hitting wall made Bec think Ms. Scarlet was basically splatted against the wall. Bec was shocked… She just killed Scarlet.

“Did I do it?” Bec turned. “Aw, damn.”

Purple laughed. “Damn Bec, you put Ms. Scarlet out. I’ve never seen so much blood out of her. Too bad, though.”

Ms. Scarlet was still standing, back to the concrete. Blood spatter spread out across the wall like demonic wings with a red woman in the center. Her arms were utterly mangled but Bec could see the musculature weaving itself back together. Reddish streaks covered the floor, like a car skid of blood.

“How? How are you still standing?”

“She ate up the momentum by ‘porting forward every time she approached the wall. She did like 4 loops before she managed to slow down enough.”

“Good job Bec. I’m impressed.” Ms. Scarlet was breathing deep heavy breaths like a highly practiced athlete. “Purple, can you clean this mess up. I’m a little indisposed right now.” Her arms swayed and twitched.

“Yeah, yeah. Stand clear of the hole, Scarlet, y’all really don’t want stand too close to reverted wall geometry.” She stepped out to reveal the wall behind her had been crushed to powder. Mr. Purple flicked the switch and the whole room flashed clean. “Wait. Wait just a minute.” Mr. Purple flicked the switch a few times. He smiled. “Ah think I got an idea. I think we just might get out of here… eventually.”

“See Bec, even puzzles can be solved by fighting!” Scarlet trotted over to Purple to give him a big hug with her meaty muscle, gross meat arms creating an image that haunted Bec for her subsequent nights in that timeline. Image recorded for posterity.